


Though Hope Is Frail It's Hard To Kill

by Merixcil



Series: Advent Fics 2019 [16]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Ghost(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26482081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: Rey goes ghosthunting and Ben comes along for the ride
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Advent Fics 2019 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916806
Kudos: 1





	Though Hope Is Frail It's Hard To Kill

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: [When You Believe by Leon Jackson](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=When+You+Believe+-+Leon+Jackson)  
> 

The ground is more or less liquid beneath them. the clumps of roots and twisted tree branches provide little respite through the dense jungle, the leaves growing so thick over their heads that they’re kept in perpetual twilight. If Dagobah wasn’t serviced by so many moons, it would be black as pitch down here. 

Rey is having an easier time of it. She’s light and spry, used to moving about on precarious surfaces that could collapse underneath her at any time. Kitted out in a pair of former Resistance flight corps trousers and a decent pair of boots, she’s going to need a long time in the ‘fresher once this is done but she’s managing. If anything, she’s disappointed in herself that she didn’t find time to come here sooner. 

Ben, on the other hand, is struggling. he’s heavy and nowhere near as fast as her and his black trousers are soaked to the knee. He doggedly hoists himself up onto every tiny island emerging through the swamp, only to drop back down into the mud right away. He might as well just give up and wade, Rey would say, but he hadn’t much appreciated the suggestion so she’s been struck out ahead of him for the best part of two days. 

“I don’t think it will work.” He had told her, when she’s suggested coming here. 

“Does that mean you won’t come?”

“Not at all. I just want to make sure you manage your expectations.”

So Rey has been trying, desperately and transparently, to manage her expectations. Because if he’s right about one thing, it’s that they’re investigating the slimmest of chances. The fact that Force sensitivity can come to anyone doesn’t mean that it can save anyone the way it saves the Jedi. Technically speaking, a Force ghost can appear anywhere throughout the Galaxy, but it’s a long established fact that the veil is thinner on Dagobah than it is anywhere else, and there are very few ghosts that don’t belong to Darksiders have ever not manifested here first. 

In the years since Luke was last here, the canopy has grown thicker and the spaces on the planet that anything larger than a light cruiser can be brought into land have diminished significantly. Luke used to be able to park in what constituted Yoda’s back garden, but Rey and Ben were lucky to find somewhere to bring the Falcon in less than a week out from the middle of the great swamp. 

“How are you doing?” Rey pauses, half way up a tree and looking to spring to her next target. 

Ben grunts, doesn’t reply and squelches past her through the mud. 

It takes another six hours, by which point they’re both filthy and exhausted, before they come across what was once the hut. It’s identifiable from the rim of what appears to be a giant clay pot poking out from under a clump of vines, but the structure itself has all but collapsed in the meantime. Still though, it’s a landmark, however old and broken. 

Rey comes to a halt, breathing heavily and sweating clean through her clothes in the muggy heat. It was never like this on Jakku. The heat there was dry, it let you breathe even as it tried to fry you. 

Ben, meanwhile, looks like a drowned rat. His hair plastered to the sides of his face with sweat and his clothes all but torn to shred. He stumbles up alongside Rey, resting a hand on the small of her back and nodding towards the remains of the hut. “This is it.”

“I know.” Rey confirms. It’s not like she was expecting. In her personal vision of how Dagobah was supposed to be the forest was thick with ghosts at least a half mile out from here. Instead the woods are calm, the bird like things fluttering quiet over head. A large snake manoeuvres itself through the vines over the hut and is silent as it goes. 

Inside that hut lies the body of Master Yoda, however much of it might be left. But Yoda exists in the air all around them, living on in the Force. This crude matter is impermanent. Impermanent for a Jedi, at least. 

“We should try to get some sleep.” Ben suggests, moving to the hollow of one of the many trees scattered on this relatively large stretch of dry land. “I’ve been running on fumes for the past two hours.”

“I could use something to eat first.” Rey admits, her stomach letting out a loud grumble to punctuate the point. It’s warm enough here that they don’t need to bring extra shelter, but they’ve mostly gotten through the supply of glorified snacks they came out with, and she’d like to save what little is left for the journey back. Ben’s mind is scrambled, clearly exhausted but aware that if he doesn’t put something substantial into his body soon he’s going to be next to useless when he wakes up. You can tell he grew up in the lap of luxury, hunger slows him down to almost nothing while Rey has often had cause to think that she functions better when she’s starving. 

They manage to catch one of the bird things overhead, that doesn’t have a beak and had one too many sets of wings. It’s not a huge meal, but roasted over a hard won fire it makes for a better dinner than another of their bland protein bars. When Ben does decide that sleep is inevitable he doesn’t even bother crawling up to the shade of a tree, just peels off his clothes and crashes out in the middle of the forest floor, totally naked. 

Initially the sight of that much skin had made Rey baulk, then excited her. Now she’s able to see it as the neutral territory it so often is when they’re not having sex. Looking at him now, all she can think is that if the rain should come he’ll be right in the line of fire, and try as he might he still has no chance of getting out of here with dry clothes. 

She tries to sleep next to him. First on her side, then on her back, and finally curled up in a tight ball like she used to when the sandstorms hit Jakku hard. But no matter how hard she tries, nothing works. Rey is left exhausted and wide awake, feeling the forest pushing in around her, whispering, wanting something. She hasn’t felt a call like this in years, and she hasn’t had so little idea of what to do with such a call ever. 

Slowly, so as not to wake Ben, she peels herself off the ground and moves over to what was once the hut. She swears as she passes by that she catches the smell of stew bubbling away inside, she can hear something that almost sounds like Luke. 

When in doubt, you meditate and let the Force come to you. That much of her training Rey has stood by since Luke first showed her how, and it’s what she turns to now, clearing her mind and listening to everything Dagobah has to offer. She sits down on a little clump of grass expecting history, expecting faces, and is rewarded with snatches of conversation from times and places that she has never touched. Every time she reaches out to try to meet the voices, to let her natural affinity for the stories woven into all things to override this sludge, they pull back and leave her stranded in the mist. 

_Han Solo?_ She pleads, _Can I reach him here? I have so much to tell him._

Han was never Force sensitive, never trained an inch. She would have a better time starting with Leia. But she has to talk to him, even if Ben doesn’t, to say thank you for everything, and sorry. 

She doesn’t snap out of it until Ben’s hand lands warm and reassuring on her shoulder, Rey opens her eyes, blinking against what now seems to be impossibly bright lights. “How long was I down?”

“No idea.” Ben shrugs, passing her what little was left of the bird from the day before. “You were here when I woke up, which was at least two hours ago.”

A long time then. Rey can feel it, moving through the air, so close and so far. Something is trying to talk to her, but she hasn’t get worked out how to listen. 

Ben drops down beside her. “Any luck?”

Rey shakes her head. “Nothing. Not even Luke. I’m sorry, this was stupid. We shouldn’t have come.”

“Don’t say that.” Ben hushes her, slipping an arm around her shoulder. “You haven’t been at it very long. There are stories of the old masters waiting years for a sign from the Force.”

“Well, I don’t think we can wait years.”

“No.” Ben agrees. “But we can certainly spare another day or two. Have hope.”

Rey nods, reaching up to link their hands together and marvelling as she does every time at how much bigger he is than her, at how he falls to his knees at her beck and call all the same. “Will you meditate with me?”

Ben’s face flashes panic. “I don’t know that you would like the sort of people I might see.”

“Don’t care.” Rey mumbles. “Show me.”

They close their eyes, hands locked together, and fall into the Force. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm truly offended by this garbage fire of a cover
> 
> Anyway I'm seeing TRoS tomorrow. Read half a tweet about it this morning and am officially Afraid. People who spoil in the comments will be prosecuted


End file.
